One Piece, Chapters 995-997
Yeah, a lot of these chapters do feel like they're just building up to the big 1000, huh? Anyway, I know 998 is out, but I have these three chapters ready to go. Anyway, a lot of these are just honestly pretty simple 'things happen', and... well, a lot of the do really have the feeling of the writer simply just waiting and sort of stalling until 1000. Not that any of these aren't entertaining, mind you!
Chapter 995: A Kuniochi's Oath
Because, like, 995 starts off with Marco fighting against Big Mom. It's less of a 'fight' and more of a 'they clash for a bit and argue for two pages'. Apparently Prometheus's flames are simply outclassed by Marco's phoenix flames, but Big Mom just chokes Marco and tells Perospero to shoot him with a candy bow. It's... it's not the most exciting thing in the world, but practically everyone have pointed out that it's kind of odd that Big Mom would have to ask for assistance in battle, and this might just be Big Mom's way of trying to gauge if Perospero has any sort of remaining shreds of allegiance to Marco.
Then Perospero gets his face absolutely fucked by a dual "Moon Raid" attack by a Sulong'd Carrot and Wanda. Carrot really hasn't had too much of a role throughout the past couple dozen chapters (and I honestly find myself so uninvested in this particular "is Carrot the next straw hat" argument) but it's neat to have these smaller conflicts go on in the background. Big Mom then says 'fuck all of this', leaves Perospero, Marco and the Minks behind, and goes off to the rooftop. It's honestly kind of weird and is yet another point in the 'what is Oda doing with Big Mom' book, but this is certainly a lot easier to swallow compared to some of the other contrivances we've gotten with Mama.
A good chunk of the chapter is just showing the chaos in the banquet hall from the Ice Oni stuff, with Apoo blowing away everyone else, and only Zoro and Drake really being able to catch up to him. The thing is, I really never thought Apoo to be that much of a threat, especially for Zoro and Drake. He's at least a Supernova, so there's that, but still. Brook is immune to the ice oni virus, but Chopper's arm gets infected... but if there's any member of the straw Hats that's the most protected by plot, that'd be Chopper. So this bit really isn't too much of a worry.
The final bit of the chapter is actually very, very neat! A lot of my problems with the later chapters of One Piece is that so much of the Straw Hats are sidelined, so even if it's just half a chapter, it's still great to see Usopp and Nami actually get a bit of a fight and get a huge character moment, at least on Nami's part. Turns out that Usopp's plants are completely useless against two giant dinosaurs, and Usopp gets an Ulti-Mortar straight to the skull with a pretty nasty X-Ray of Usopp's skull bones cracking. Ulti basically forces Nami to denounce Luffy's dream of being the 'king of pirates', while Usopp thinks things like 'lie, lie to save your life, and we'll figure out what to do later'. But Nami, of course, refuses to do so. Which is very stupid but very awesome at the same time. I feel like a subtle theme across the Wano arc in general is 'what will you die for', and turns out that this is the one thing that Nami will die for. Neat! (Oh, and Otama shows up with her huge-ass dog buddy to help out).
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Chapter 996: Island of the Strongest
A bit of a follow up to the previous one, we get Otama evacuating Nami (who's fine) and Usopp (who's not fine) on the Komainu, while her giant baboon friend is somehow able to stall Page One and Ulti. Okay? We then get Yamato absolutely beating the shit out of these random shield goons that are part of Sasaki's group, and again, just like 995, we get a 'what will you die for' scene. Shinobu tells Yamato to abandon her wounded self and escape with Momonosuke, because that's the smart thing to do for a samurai. Yamato, however, refuses to do that, because "Kozuki Oden would never do that".
Not that I don't doubt Yamato could beat up Sasaki one-on-one, mind you. But then this bit gets interrupted by Franky, being chased by Hacha. Franky immediately trusts Yamato, Yamato tells Franky to handle the pirates there, and Yamato helps to one-shot Hacha in a bit while the three of them fall down a level. It's basically a set-up for Franky-vs-Sasaki. Which is certainly far, far more exciting than Franky-vs-a-random-giant-man. Pretty neat, and even more neat when you realize that half the fandom realized that Sasaki shares a lot of features with Kokoro and Chimney, noting that Sasaki might very well be the missing son of Kokoro. That'd be very interesting for sure!
We get a short scene of Law killing people and musing about the flashback of Corazon, and apparently Law discussed about the "Will of the D" with Robin at one point in the past, and the only way to learn about the legacy of their family is through the red poneglyphs. It's... it's interesting to see what Law's real goal throughout this whole thing is. He has been acting kind of shifty throughout the Wano arc and while I don't really think Law's the type to betray Luffy's group, I do think that it's fun that he's not just a yes-man and is actually chasing his own goals.
Speaking of rivals, we get a single page of Kid and Killer running through the castle while creating a giant tidal wave of metal. They want to kill Kaidou! Speaking of Kaidou, we get a single page (and a pretty awesome, dialogue-less one) of Kaidou just beating the Scabbards down. No dialogue, he just completely beats Kin'emon and Denjirou. Also, we get a short shot of Big Mom flying up, and Luffy also running upwards, and Sanji being distracted by a 'naughty' sound. Probably the most disjointed out of the three chapters here, if we're being honest.
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Chapter 997: Flames
This one has Sanji run around and witness a naughty scene of a woman being assaulted by a pervert. It's not that funny, but apparently it's actually a parody on a common gag in Japanese theater, so there's some context to this joke. Okay, then. Turns out that Sanji gets trapped by a spider-web, and gets beaten and wrapped up by the pirates there. Turns out that he fell into the lair of Black Maria, and, Sanji being Sanji, of course he immediately goes for a "I love you!" and falls for her. It's... it's pretty much regular ol' Sanji being Sanji, although setting him up for a fight against a powerful combatant isn't something I'm opposed to.
Luffy and Jinbe continue to go up, one floor per chapter (they're going to reach the rooftop at 1000). We then cut away back to the banquet hall, and Zoro sees Big Mom fly up... and something fall down. It's Kiku's arm, and as everyone else from Chopper to Queen to Omasa to Drake to Apoo are yelling and shouting, we get these cool shots of Zoro just being quiet, doing an iai pose... and one-shotting Apoo with a single slash. No words, no monologue, no calling out his attacks. Apoo, a Supernova, just gets slashed to white-eyed unconsciousness. That is bad ass.
(Also, yeah, releasing a chapter where Zoro takes out a Supernova while Sanji gets bamboozled by women really made the fandom explode, particularly the segments where the Zoro-vs-Sanji rivalries are strong)
That is a badass scene. Zoro gets the antibody, gives it to Chopper, and Chopper basically figures out that the virus is spread by cold and all you need to do is heat the body while Chopper makes an antivirus. Okay, sure, pretty simple. I honestly am surprised the ice oni thing lasted for so many chapters, but there we go. Queen is about to gatling-gun Chopper down, but a flying slash from Zoro just causes the balcony to explode and Queen to drop his weapon. Zoro is really angry and he really wants to cut Kaidou up.
Speaking of which, there is a genuinely funny bit where the room starts to move like an earthquake, and everyone thinks that Zoro has activated Conqueror's Haki. It's an amazing bit of trolling by the writer there, of course, but it's not actually Zoro, but something else we'll find out at the end of the chapter. Zoro notes that the way to reach Kaido is barred by King and Queen... and who else would show up but Marco, who's like, "hey, I'm ready to help, what do you want me to do?". We then get a cut to everyone reacting to the island seemingly shaking and quaking and sinking... but as Yamato, Momonosuke and Shinobu arrive on the port, they see that there's no ships or even the sea... and turns out that Kaidou is using the 'flame clouds' of a dragon to lift Onigashima itself into the air, making it a flying island, quite literally moving the entire capital itself. What a cliffhanger!
Anyway, two more chapters before the big 1000, and things sure are escalating!
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Random Notes:
- Perospero's indignation does kind of have a point? As much as it's Perospero that's the threat that caused Pedro's death, he did blow himself up.
- Apoo did actually block Zoro and Drake simultaneously with his tonfa. Sure, he got utterly fucked afterwards, but that's still pretty cool.
- In 995, Queen apparently recognizes Vinsmoke Judge's son and might have something to do with Judge. A former rival, or a former member of Germa? Interesting. He is a tinkerer, and the Germa are obsessed with technology....
- The X-ray shot of Usopp's skull injury isn't going to matter that much; Usopp survived from a similar shot back in Alabasta.
- The Narikabura Arrow panel in 996 is pretty badass, I must say.
- Yamato says that Momonosuke is 'the one that must guide the world to the dawn'. Hmmm, lots of people are doing guiding the world into the dawn, I see.
- The woman that trapped Sanji with the 'Naughty Trap' is the long-necked snake SMILE woman that spread pro-Orochi propaganda in one of the first scenes in Wano arc. I remember her because she looks like the yokai Rokuro-kubi (lit. long-necked woman). Lots of Black Maria's minions seem to be based on Yokai, huh?
- 997 has a one-page joke of showing us yet another pair of hideous-looking SMILE users, Poker the rattlesnake-SMILE and Mizerka the gorilla-SMILE... but because Luffy and Jinbe took a different path, they just didn't do anything at all.
- Poor Law's crew are still in the submarine and they just lampshade how they won't be able to join the fight.
- All the theories about how Wano is created by Continent-Puller Oars bringing a bunch of islands together... and then turns out that Kaidou might very well have a far more practical way of doing that. God Valley being missing might also be caused by Kaidou, as many people immediately theorized after this chapter.
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